How to Think Clearly About Politics: Facts, Assertions, and Generalities
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We must remember that in time of war what is said on the enemy’s side of the front is always propaganda, and what is said on our side of the front is truth and righteousness, the cause of humanity and a crusade for peace. -Walter Lippman
America is divided and angry. It seems like half the country is mad at President Bush, and blames him for everything; half the country blames Obama for everything; and half just hates all politicians no matter what. Yes, I know that's three halves.
Now, I disagree mostly with one of those halves, and kind of ride the fence between the other two. But I recognize that people have reasons for believing what they do. And we all have some irrational beliefs, no matter what side of the political fence we are on.
Many of the problems in our political discourse are, I believe, the result of our media system and its manipulation by public relations professionals. Much of the information that we are given, to use in evaluating our lawmakers and administrators, is biased in some way or another. I'm writing another hub about that.
In this hub I am presenting some things that will be useful to all three halves, some ways of looking at evidence that will help us evaluate its accuracy before we use that information to make decisions.
Something to think about: all politicians use propaganda. Corporations use it too - and we little people use it every day as well, in our everyday lives.
First: next time you tune in to a talking head on TV, or read an editorial or newspaper article, or listen to a speech by the President, keep track of the following three things:
3 different types of information:
Concrete facts. These are things that cannot be disputed - and they are very rare. Being rare, like diamonds, they are also the most valuable sorts of facts. There is some overlap between concrete facts and our next category:
Assertions. This is when you need to start examining the evidence. Assertions may be true, and they may not. Much of what is presented as incontrovertible fact is really just assertion.
For example: data about unemployment and job losses. You may think that the government's figures for unemployment are concrete facts - but they can be manipulated and interpreted depending on your agenda. For example: do the figures report everyone who is not working, or only those people who apply for unemployment benefits? What about people who lost full time work and have taken part time work at a lower wage? What about people who are employed full time but only on a temporary basis? What if someone is still working but has had their hours cut?
Abstractions and generalities: Learn to recognize these - and then start ignoring them. They are absolutely useless in determining anything of value. Consequently, they are a favorite of politicians and PR hacks, and the most common sort of information out there.
Click here for a stellar example of vague generalities in political speech.
A quote from the article linked above: "in small towns, I detected great affection for Palin. People talked about how she was 'a real person' who 'reflected their values.'"
Wait a minute. Which people talked about Palin that way? In which small towns? Did the writer talk to every single person in every small town in America? Are all people who live in small towns fans of Sarah Palin?
What about this "real person" business? Is Barack Obama, for example, not a "real person"? If not, what is he? Am I not a "real person" too? What the hell is a "real person" anyway?
And Sarah Palin "reflected their values"? Which values, exactly? How does she reflect them?
If you think about this essay you will see that it is worthless. There is nothing concrete in those statements at all. The author would better serve his case by presenting some sort of polling or demographic data.
"War on Terror" is another example. How exactly do we define terror? How much terror are we fighting against? If our allies use terrorist tactics, are we at war with them too? When does the war on terror stop? Since terrorism is the response of the powerless to overwhelming power, it is impossible to stop. As long as you have enemies who want to kill you but don't have armies, you will have terrorism.
"Anti-American." This is a common charge against people who don't agree with a certain political leader or set of values.
But it is all the eye of the beholder. If I think that a certain policy will be harmful to my country, I will oppose it - and my opposition is born out of a wish to protect my country. So how can I be antiAmerican? Actually what I am is anti- Iraq war, or anti- Healthcare reform, or anti- Big bank bailout.
Be very cautious when someone starts throwing around words like "liberty" and "freedom". Yes, we all love freedom. Even the people who voted for Obama.
- War, Propaganda and the Media Global Issues
Propaganda can affect millions of lives. Military, government and media propaganda can go hand in hand. Other times, media can be affected themselves by propaganda. This part of the globalissues.org web site looks into the very important issue of pro - Sourcewatch.org
Provides information on many of the entities involved in shaping public opinion today. - Propaganda
Propaganda is a basic method of mass mind control used every day. - Glittering generalities
Glittering Generalities as a propaganda device uses needs- or value-based vague words to invoke powerful emotions.
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The term 'American' or even worse, 'real American', is starting to grate. I have been lectured about what constitutes a 'real American' by more than one person here at HP who was born in another country and has only lived in the U.S. for a few decades. Who are the unreal Americans? I worked in call centers for eight years and I can tell you for a fact that real Americans come in every size, shape, and color imaginable and they come from all over the world.
My family has been here for four generations and my Dad was a strongly pro-union and drove a truck for the Gas Company all his life. He worked hard and paid taxes. Does that make him a fake American or a real American? Are real Americans only people from former Soviet block countries who have strong anti-communist passions, or do some of the folks who have actually lived in the U.S. for their whole lives get to be real Americans too? I'm so sick of people spitting their biases in my face and then demanding respect. If someone wants my respect, then first give some respect. Most of what passes for political discussion is just abuse and ignorance.
People are making politics very personal. It's all about name calling. Few people bother to think any more. Thank you for raising the issue. I think many people are sick to death of the trends you cite here.
Very good hub. How many voters are armed with abstractions and generalities when they cast a vote?
Pam, good comment.
Thanks for the excellent comments. Ralph, you are right, there are many different factors. I think we have always had the same sort of propaganda and uncivil dialogue - it's just that now it is more prevalent. We don't discuss politics at the lunch counter or kitchen table, but anonymously. Our debating partners are no longer our neighbors, but small 50x50 avatars and lines of text.
And I blame the media for a lot of it - I'm working on a hub about that.
Pam - you are so right. I was called anti-American and a traitor for speaking out against Bush and the Iraq war. The charge of traitor, while a bit more chilling, is easier to refute. But antiAmerican? My father fought in Vietnam, and both my grandfathers fought in World War 2. My father traced my family line in this country back to the American Revolution, where one of my ancestors fought against the British.
Such a charge is ridiculous. Do I disagree with the policies of my government? Yes. Do I hate America? Of course not - no more so than the person who stands up and screams at his congressman at a town hall meeting. Is one of us misguided? LOL. Perhaps. But we all act out of a sense of what seems right to us.
Gnelson - you nailed it. Glittering generalities are the stock in trade of politicians.
Excellent hub and really enjoyed the follow up discussions! Thanks for the insight. Propaganda prevails and is used by all - I think the think tanks on the right have positioned themselves brilliantly by defining themselves as pro-life - that makes everyone else pro-death, etc. I hope kids are still reading 1984 by Orwell!
Hi Kartika - I share your hope - 1984 should be required reading I think.
The funny thing is, people on both sides accuse the other of using doublespeak and doublethink. And if you are on the right there is a tendency to think that Big Brother was based on Stalin's regime (and by extension Orwell was an anticommunist/antisocialist), whereas if you are on the left the totalitarian boogeyman is Hitler (with a similar set of extended associations, just reversed).
But really, I think Orwell was just writing about the horrors of totalitarianism and the importance of clear thinking to clear language, and clear language to clear thinking.
Well, I think the problem isn't recognizing propaganda as much as it being about the complacent fools (typified by GWB) who never do their homework when it comes to staying informed--people who are comfortable in their ignorance and don't want the discomfort of recognizing their responsibilities as people, let alone citizens.
Until we address the dearth of thoughtful and responsible participants in our democracy, the demagogues and the weasels will continue to subvert our oligarchical system of money-driven politics and propaganda that influence lazy consumers into believing the crap that distracts, distorts and sells our country down the drain.
I have to agree with Robert that ignorance and Laziness is a key factor in the demise of thoughtful and well informed participation in our democracy!
This was in just one of the stats I found in Wilipedia - All over the U.S.A. 30 million (14% of adults) are unable to perform simple and everyday literacy activities.
Ralph made a comment elsewhere that there are around 100 million Americans who either can't read at the 4th grade level or else can read but without comprehension. That would be almost 1 in 3 Americans who basically can't read. That's just downright scary - and I don't think you can blame laziness for that.
Intellectual laziness, though - that is rife, among literate and illiterate Americans.
Thanks for dropping by!
William, I often wonder whether TV isn't at the heart of all this. The media has become wonderfully adept at whipping their audience up into a self-righteous frenzy. The written word is powerful, but it has obvious limitations. The spoken word, however, especially when delivered with a suitable amount of visual panache and razzmatazz, seeps into the consciousness almost involuntarily. Deletions, distortions and generalisations are all the tools of a good hypnotist, and politicians and marketing experts borrow heavily from this armoury.
Amanda - that could be a good hub in itself, about the way our brains perceive television or radio vs. the written word. I might run with that one! And the hypnotist's toolbox - I'll have to research that, sounds very interesting and relevant.
Demagogues and irrational mobs have always been around - it's hard to say if we're better off today than we have been historically. Not too many lynchings going on today in America, after all.
But marketing science has definitely provided a host of new tools for demagogues and politicians. It's the 21st century... have you heard of Videocracy, about Italy's prime minister? He has a virtual monopoly on media in Italy, and strangely enough he's been reelected over and over again....
William, you might like my hub about the nature of influence and original thinking. I trained as a hypnotherapist and it's made me very aware of linguistic games. I don't know if you've ever encountered a guy called Derren Brown. He's a Brit, but there's loads of his stuff posted on YouTube. It's an education in itself.
The kind of journalism that is being taught nowadays is very different from that of about 40 years ago. And in a historic sense journalism is a modern thing anyway(there weren't any pressmen in the early centuries AD, for example).
People therefore are wise if they are judicious and skeptical, but how many are that? Very few people pick and choose among the 'facts' they are fed each day.
The media is coaching the public to treat news in the same way they treat celebrity trivia, and not so unwittingly either.
But I am not about to end this comment with a warning: the world has ever been thus, to a greater or lesser extent. We have the journalists and politicians we deserve.
Hang on... Clint Eastwood once very cleverly said, "Deserve has nothing to do with it." Well Clint, sometimes I think it does.
I think it's a combination of things, Mr. Rosewater. We deserve it, insofar as we (as a whole) haven't used the great advantages in education, literacy, and availability of information to actually better ourselves and our media system.
But I also think that the population has been manipulated to a huge extent. How can we make good decisions when we dont' get the information we need from the people who are supposed to bring it to us?
Case in point: a few years ago I had some friends who went to Miami to protest a trade meeting (WTO or FTAA, I'm not sure which). Thousands of protesters showed up from all over the world. The national guard was brought in, and there were tanks rolling through downtown Miami. Protesters were shot with teargas and rubber bullets.
Guess what was all over the news?
Michael Jackson. Every radio station, cable news network, and newspaper was covering a trial over whether Michael Jackson had sexual contact with a child who slept at his houese.
William, yes, this is true - I did not hear about the protest, but bringing in the national guard to stop the protesters - we might as well be living in Iran.
Very concise and accurate.
Indoctrination has been used from the very beginnings of history. The success or failure of every religion, monarchy, dictatorship and empire ever conceived has always been contingent upon it. The best way to ensure a compliant populace is by defining reality for them in whatever terms serve the agenda of the ruling class.
The international banking cartel, the plutocracy that controls the global economy, has taken the science of indoctrination to extraordinary heights. Its marketing and propaganda machinery have been honed to razor sharp efficiency. The resultant mass of thoughtless and obedient consumerbots is now happily converting the once bountiful Earth into a third world planet.
Today, one school of indoctrination has achieved a level of broad success, reaching every corner of the globe, which could not have been imagined even by Mr. Orwell. The profit machine of the free market is on the verge of achieving global hegemony of a scope that would make Mr. Hitler green with envy.
The utter subjugation of humanity in its billions, by an incredibly small number of individuals, is but a few mergers and acquisitions away.
You are so right, CWB. Thanks for dropping in and commenting!
This is not bad, William. You did your best to moderate your acridity toward those who wish to conserve what made America the greatest nation in the history of human beings that millions would risk their lives to emigrate to even across shark infested waters while the Left praises the place they escaped from.
I will help you understand one term that seemed to bewilder you: real person. This means that Palin is a real person in the sense that she hasn't been to the Alinsky school and taught how to misdirect what you really mean, what you really intend, what you really believe. That's what is known as real people where I come from. It's an old term.
Overall, I liked your piece.
Thank you James, for a comment that illustrates exactly what I am talking about. Using vague generalities sure is useful isn't it? It lets you define the terms and disregard troublesome facts.
Drop by the ACLU hub I wrote sometime too...
What we need in everyday life in all communities re freedom is to abide by the old rule, "One person's freedom ends where harm to another begins." The problem is, there are fewer and fewer people willing to stand up for the victims, whether it be internationally, within a nation, within communities, or within families. In this world where criminals and terrorists are defended I often wonder where the concept of protecting the innocent has gone?
Be careful, William, to value your critics so you can learn from them and be generous with everyone who is willing to communicate with you, not just those who agree with you, so learning can take place on both sides.
Rtalloni - I think you may not be noticing some of the work that is done to stand up for victims and protect the innocent. There are many victims in our society, and most of them are probably going unnoticed.
I agree with you that we should be thankful for our critics. And we should think critically about what the people who agree with us say as well. That's why discerning facts and distinguishing them from assertions is so important.
There are commendable organizations with great people working on behalf of victims and protection of the innocent, however, their numbers are declining as the number of victims grows. And sadly, our justice system has come to the point where it undermines some of the victories.
You do well to promote searching for truth. We need to be sure of our facts as we attempt to study issues with a discerning eye.
Seems I'm the first one to read this Hub in nine months - that's strange because it is a very good and interesting Hub! Politicians the world over trade in vagueness and generalities when they're not telling downright lies! Propaganda machines tell the lies and we the people pay the price.
Thanks for sharing these interesting thoughts.
Love and peace
Tony
Nice piece of work William. I distinctly remember taking a logic and rhetoric in college as a very young man. I remember, at the time, wondering how on earth this could ever benefit the "average American." The funny part is, I have found myself "using" what I learned almost daily in business and in my private life.
William:
Always nice to sees someone who sees and shows James Watkins for what he is. . .
Amazing how many of the tactics you spoke of have been used so well by voices on the right to convince people to vote against their economic interets and for an America of, by and for folks like the Koch Brothers.
Ralph Deeds Level 6 Commenter 2 years ago
All very true. Many are saying that the Internet has accelerated the dissemination of lies, half truths, propaganda and invective. Here on Hubpages we hear the president accused of being a socialist, a Marxist, a communist, a racist and worse none of which is remotely true. And once Bush's initial honeymoon was over we heard him called lazy, an idiot, and so forth. (All true of course!) For whatever reason, the dialog appears to me to have disintegrated quite a bit in recent years. Some attribute the decline to the polarization of the two parties due to the gerrymandering of Congressional districts which has made them more secure for incumbents of each party. Others blame talk radio extremists and Fox News. No doubt a number of factors have contributed to the current situation. And the factors mentioned in this Hub aren't new. They have been around forever.